USC has taken precautionary measures as it prepares for an early-season storm that’s expected to begin Monday night. The university has made multiple improvements to buildings to combat water and electrical damage following rainstorms in both 2023 and 2024 that upended classroom instruction, according to Marvin Munson, the head of music operations and facilities at the Thornton School of Music.
Los Angeles is expected to receive .75 to 1.5 inches of rainfall starting Monday night and continuing through Tuesday afternoon, according to NBC Los Angeles.
In February 2023, a powerful winter storm hit Los Angeles County, resulting in the area seeing rainfall totalling more than 10 inches, according to NPR. This storm caused the Music Complex building at USC Thornton School of Music to close after its mechanical room flooded, which damaged a main power transformer, resulting in a power outage. Thornton classes were either moved online or relocated to alternative spaces as the university worked to fix the damage.
David Lavond, a professor in the psychology department during another storm in August 2023, experienced water damage and leaks in his office and classroom, both housed in the Seeley G. Mudd building at the time. “The leaks were eventually repaired,” Lavond said. “I did not have a problem up to my leaving [in January 2025].”
The following year, in February 2024, multiple buildings across campus experienced flooding and damage due to heavy rain, including Thornton once again. Eleven other buildings suffered weather-related damage, with some requiring “extensive drying and repairs for walls, ceilings and floorings,” according to USC Facilities and Planning Management.
The other buildings affected were Bridge Memorial Hall, the Physical Education building, Hoffman Hall of Business Administration, Kaprielian Hall, Denney Research Center, Alice and Eleonore Schoenfeld Symphonic Hall, Donald P. and Katherine B. Loker Hydrocarbon Institute, Allan Hancock Foundation Building, Marks Tennis Stadium, Taper Hall of Humanities and the Soto Street Building Annex.
Munson said that USC Facilities Planning and Management has made improvements to buildings since the February 2024 storm, specifically to Alice and Eleonore Schoenfeld Symphonic Hall, which suffered significant water damage inside the walls and underneath the floor.
“They redid the slope of the roof so that water is not accumulating and actually runs down towards the drain,” Munson said. “Another big thing is that they added a mesh netting over the top of the rain gutters to keep debris out so that the water can drain out right and not into the building.”
Ruby Block, a sophomore studying music industry, says that if Thornton buildings were once again damaged due to the upcoming storm, it would have a substantial impact on Thornton students’ ability to practice “not only their instrument, but also their passion.”
“[A lot of students] come to the school for [instrumental] resources, which the school should be able to provide,” Block said. “It’d be a big problem if there was damage to instruments in the buildings themselves, because they play a huge role in Thornton majors and careers.”
Although Block, who is from Los Angeles, wasn’t a student at USC during the previous major storms, she wasn’t surprised that the rainfall resulted in significant damage on USC’s campus. “It makes sense to me as to why this could happen from rain, because Los Angeles is not used to this,” Block said.
Although Munson is optimistic about the repairs made to USC buildings, he said the efficacy of the updates won’t be known until a storm occurs.
“If it’s gonna rain hard these next couple days, that will be our first big test whether those improvements work to the full extent that we hope,” Munson said. “Some of the stuff you won’t know until it actually rains.”